Seventy-one 1963-75 Research & Development (R&D) reports were reviewed for purposes of providing a rural R&D synthesis useful to Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) planners and identifying labor market analysis techniques/implications successful rural programmatic initiations, data gaps, and broad policy issues. Conclusions and suggestions re: future research objectives were made relative to the supply and demand for rural labor and the design/experience of rural employment and training programs. In general, the literature suggested: rural labor market problems were unique in origin, requiring population specific program responses; the role of poverty related economic development problems had been explored, but the causes of varying rates of economic development in rural areas had not been clearly documented nor had the effectiveness of encouraging economic development via special efforts and geographic specific orientations been explored; rural labor force members behaved differently than their urban counterparts, but the reasons for the differences remained unexplained; the success of education/training programs was related to client motivation, and the most successful programs were those offering a variety of supportive services in addition to basic education; low wage rates influenced client motivation when welfare services were comparable; there was a rural youth emphasis; R&D literature was more oriented toward the research than the practitioner community. (JC)